Makati cops to hold talks with hotels on drugs

MANILA, Philippines - Following Tuesday’s arrest of an American for possession of P50 million worth of “shabu”, five grams of cocaine and valium (Diazepam), the Makati Anti-Drug Council (MADAC) will be intensifying its drive to educate residents and security personnel of hotels, condominiums as well as malls in the city on illegal drugs.

MADAC operations chief Senior Superintendent Jaime Santos said Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay has ordered the unit to also intensify dialogues with the administrators of condominiums, hotels and malls on the detection and reporting of illegal drugs.

On Tuesday afternoon, P50 million worth of shabu were seized by agents of the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) from the unit of Bryan Hill, 32, at the Columns Tower condominium in Barangay Bel-Air.

Seized from Hill’s no. 10N unit were a kilogram of shabu worth P5 million, five grams of cocaine, valium (Diazepam) tablets and syringes.

Also seized from a Mitsubishi Pajero (SEP-825) parked at the condominium’s level 5 parking area were another five kilos of shabu inside a black plastic container, bringing the total value of drugs seized to P50 million.

“We need to educate them on how to detect drugs, especially those brought inside condominiums, hotels and malls, and how to coordinate with the police,” said Santos.

Santos said Hill could be just using his condominium unit as base and makes his deals outside of Makati.

“If he was dealing here, his operation could have long been discovered by us,” said Santos.

Santos added that based on his experience, the drugs found inside the Mistubishi Pajero was already prepared for a deal.

Santos also does not discount the possibility that drug deals could also happen inside the city’s malls, condominiums and hotels as most of the security dogs in these places are trained to detect explosives but not drugs.

From January to October this year, MADAC has filed charges against 150 persons who were arrested by the Makati Police’s Station Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group (SAIDSOTG).

Aside from making drug busts, MADAC is also regularly conducting livelihood programs, team building activities for recovered drug dependents and co-dependents, seminars, counselling and group therapy sessions.